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16 results for “alarm cues”
Interpreting the smells of predation: How alarm cues and kairomones induce different prey defenses.
1. For phenotypically plastic organisms to produce phenotypes that are well matched to their environment, they must acquire information about their environment. For inducible defences, cues from damaged prey and cues from predators both have the potential to provide important information, yet we know little about the relative importance of these separate sources of information for behavioural and morphological defences. We also do not know the point during a predation event at which kairomones are produced, i.e. whether they are produced constitutively, during prey attack or during prey digestion. 2. We exposed leopard frog tadpoles (Rana pipiens) to nine predator cue treatments involving several combinations of cues from damaged conspecifics or heterospecifics, starved predators, predators only chewing prey, predators only digesting prey or predators chewing and digesting prey. 3. We quantified two behavioural defences. Tadpole hiding behaviour was induced only by cues from crushed tadpoles. Reduced tadpole activity was induced only by cues from predators digesting tadpoles or predators chewing + digesting tadpoles. 4. We also quantified tadpole mass and two size-adjusted morphological traits that are known to be phenotypically plastic. Mass was unaffected by the cue treatments. Relative body length was affected (i.e. there were differences among some treatments), but none of the treatments significantly differed from the no-predator control. Relative tail depth was affected by the treatments and deeper tails were induced only when tadpoles were exposed to cues from predators digesting tadpoles or cues from predators chewing + digesting tadpoles. 5. These results demonstrate that some prey species can discriminate among a diverse set of potential cues from heterospecific prey, conspecific prey and predators. Moreover, the results illustrate that the cues responsible for the full suite of behavioural and morphological defences are not induced by tadpole crushing nor
Damage, digestion, and defense: The roles of alarm cues and kairomones for inducing prey defenses.
Inducible defences are widely used for studying phenotypic plasticity, yet frequently we know little about the cues that induce these defences. For aquatic prey, defences are induced by chemical cues from predators (kairomones) and injured prey (alarm cues). Rarely has anyone determined the separate and combined effects of these cues, particularly across phylogenetically diverse prey types. We examined how tadpoles (Hyla versicolor) altered their defences when 10 different prey were either crushed by hand or consumed by predators. Across all prey types, crushing induced only a subset of the defences induced by consumption. Consuming vs. crushing produced additive responses for behaviour but synergistic responses for morphology and growth. Moreover, we discovered the first extensive evidence that prey responses to different alarm cues depends on prey phylogeny. These results suggest that the amount of information available to the prey affects both the quantitative and qualitative nature of the defended phenotype.
When should prey respond to heterospecific alarm cues? Testing the hypotheses of perceived risk.
In aquatic systems, a long-standing question is why chemical cues from some diets consumed by a predator induce strong anti-predator responses in prey while other diets induce weak or no responses. We performed an experiment to determine if strong prey responses to particular predator diets are due to prey being closely related to the predator’s diet (i.e., phylogenetic relatedness) or due to prey coexisting with the predator’s diet and thereby sharing a risk of predation. We compared the behavior of Gray Treefrog tadpoles (Hyla versicolor) to cues from a dragonfly nymph (Anax junius) that consumed either conspecific Gray Treefrogs, one of six diets that commonly coexist with Gray Treefrogs (spanning a wide range of phylogenetic relatedness), or one diet that is closely related to Gray Treefrogs but has an allopatric range that has not overlapped for at least 20,000 yrs. We found that tadpoles could discriminate among the diets and that the magnitude of behavioral response supported the hypothesis of diet phylogenetic relatedness and refuted the hypothesis of diet coexistence.
Alarm cues and alarmed conspecifics: Neural activity during social learning from different cues in Trinidadian guppies
<p>Learning to respond appropriately to novel dangers is often essential to survival and success, but carries risks. Learning about novel threats from others (social learning) can reduce these risks. Many species, including the Trinidadian guppy (<em>Poecilia reticulata</em>), respond defensively to both conspecific chemical alarm cues and conspecifix anti-predator behaviours, and in other fish such social information can lead to a learned aversion to novel threats. However, relatively little is known about the neural substrates underlying social learning and the degree to which different forms of learning share similar neural mechanisms. Here, we explored the neural substrates mediating social learning of novel threats from two different conspecific cues (i.e. social cue-based threat learning). We first demonstrated that guppies rapidly learn about threats paired with either alarm cues or with conspecific threat responses (demonstration). Then, focusing on acquisition rather than recall, we discovered that phospho-S6 expression, a marker of neural activity, was elevated in guppies during learning from alarm cues in the putative homologue of the mammalian lateral septum and the preoptic area. Surprisingly, these changes in neural activity were not observed in fish learning from conspecific demonstration. Together, these results implicate forebrain areas in social learning about threat but raise the possibility that circuits contribute to such learning in a stimulus-specific manner.</p>
Alarm cues and alarmed conspecifics: Neural activity during social learning from different cues in Trinidadian guppies
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Do epigenetic changes drive corticosterone responses to alarm cues in larvae of an invasive amphibian?
<p>The developmental environment can exert powerful effects on animal phenotype. Recently epigenetic modifications have emerged as one mechanism that can modulate developmentally plastic responses to environmental variability. For example, the DNA methylation profile at promoters of hormone receptor genes can affect their expression and patterns of hormone release. Across taxonomic groups, epigenetic alterations have been linked to changes in glucocorticoid (GC) physiology. GCs are metabolic hormones that influence growth, development, transitions between life-history stages, and thus fitness. To date, relatively few studies have examined epigenetic effects on phenotypic traits in wild animals, especially in amphibians. Here, we examined the effects of exposure to predation threat and experimentally manipulated DNA methylation on corticosterone (CORT) levels in tadpoles and metamorphs of the invasive cane toad (Rhinella marina). We included offspring of toads sampled from populations across the species' Australian range. In these animals, exposure to chemical cues from injured conspecifics induces shifts in developmental trajectories, putatively as an adaptive response that lessens vulnerability to predation. We exposed tadpoles to these alarm cues, and measured changes in DNA methylation and CORT levels, both of which are mechanisms that have been implicated in the control of phenotypically plastic responses in tadpoles. To test the idea that DNA methylation drives shifts in GC physiology, we also experimentally manipulated methylation levels with the drug zebularine. We found differentially methylated regions between control tadpoles and their full-siblings exposed to alarm cues, zebularine or both treatments. However, the effects of these manipulations on methylation patterns were weaker than clutch (e.g. genetic, maternal, etc.) effects. CORT levels were higher in larval cane toads exposed to alarm cues and zebularine. We found little evidence of changes in DNA methylation across the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) promoter region in response to alarm cue or zebularine exposure. In both alarm cue and zebularine-exposed individuals, we found differentially methylated DNA in the suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 gene (SOCS3), which may be involved in predator avoidance behavior. In total, our data reveal that alarm cues have significant impacts on tadpole physiology, but show only weak links between DNA methylation and CORT levels. We also identify genes containing differentially methylated regions in tadpoles exposed to alarm cues and zebularine, particularly in range-edge populations, that warrant further investigation.</p>
Data from: Yellowtail damselfish Chrysiptera parasema can associate predation risk with the acoustic call of a heterospecific damselfish following pairing with conspecific alarm cues
<p>The ability to detect and respond to the presence of predation risk is under intense selection, especially for small-bodied fishes that coexist with predators. Fish use visual, olfactory, and auditory cues to assess predation risk. Damselfishes (Pomacentridae) use auditory vocalizations during inter- and intrasexual interactions, but it is not known if they can use vocalizations in the context of predator-prey interactions. Here, we test if yellowtail damselfish, <em>Chrysiptera parasema</em>, can learn to associate the territorial vocalization of heterospecific humbug damselfish <em>Dascyllus aruanus</em> with predation risk. In conditioning trials of yellowtail damselfish we played the territorial call of humbug damselfish while introducing either blank water (control treatment) or chemical alarm cue derived from damaged skin of conspecific yellowtail damselfish. In conditioning trials, fish exposed to alarm cue increased activity and spent more time in the water column relative to fish that received the control treatment. After a single conditioning trial, conditioned fish were exposed again to the territorial call. Fish conditioned with the call + alarm cue increased activity and time in the water column relative to fish that had been conditioned with the control treatment. These data indicate associative learning of an auditory stimulus with predation risk in a species that regularly uses auditory signaling in other contexts. Recordings of conditioning and test trials failed to detect any acoustic calls produced by test fish in response to the perception of predation risk. Thus, although yellowtail damselfish can associate risk with auditory stimuli, we found no evidence that they produce an alarm call.</p>
Figure 2 in Studies in European ant-decapitating flies (Diptera: Phoridae): ant alarm pheromone as host finding cue in Pseudacteon brevicauda, a parasite of Myrmica rubra (Formicidae: Myrmicinae)
Figure 2. Percentage of flies showing flight activity as a reaction to synthetic 3-octanone, nonanone and 3-octanol. Water was used as a control (n = 30 each).
Figure 1 in Studies in European ant-decapitating flies (Diptera: Phoridae): ant alarm pheromone as host finding cue in Pseudacteon brevicauda, a parasite of Myrmica rubra (Formicidae: Myrmicinae)
Figure 1. Percentage of alerted flies from the total number tested. Control (C), intact worker ants (A), crushed gaster and thorax (G + T), crushed head (H) and two crushed mandibular glands (MG).
Acquired predator recognition via epidermal alarm cues but not dietary alarm cues by isolated pupfish
<p>We tested whether Shoshone pupfish <em>Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone</em> and Amargosa River pupfish <em>C. n. amargosae</em> respond behaviourally to conspecific chemical alarm cues released when epidermal tissue is damaged by a predator. We found that both subspecies reduced activity and vertical position in the water column in response to alarm cues. We then tested if pupfish can use alarm cues to acquire recognition of a novel predator. We trained pupfish with (1) water + odour of largemouth bass fed a diet of earthworms, (2) alarm cues from skin extract (epidermal alarm cues) + odour of bass fed a diet of earthworms, or (3) water + odour of bass fed a diet of pupfish (dietary alarm cues). Pupfish responded to epidermal alarm cues but not to dietary alarm cues. Pupfish were retested with the odour of bass that were fed an earthworm diet. Pupfish that had previously received epidermal alarm cues reduced vertical position and activity relative to the other two treatments. This is the first demonstration of acquired recognition of a novel predator by a pupfish, the first report of partial predator naiveté, and opens the possibility of predator-recognition training as a tool for management and conservation of endangered desert fishes.</p>
Data from: A novel alarm signal in aquatic prey: Familiar minnows coordinate group defences against predators through chemical disturbance cues
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Do epigenetic changes drive corticosterone responses to alarm cues in larvae of an invasive amphibian?
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Data from: Yellowtail damselfish Chrysiptera parasema can associate predation risk with the acoustic call of a heterospecific damselfish following pairing with conspecific alarm cues
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Acquired predator recognition via epidermal alarm cues but not dietary alarm cues by isolated pupfish
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Suction feeding by predators limits direct release of alarm cues in fishes
<p>Chemical alarm cues alert aquatic prey to the presence of an actively foraging predator. There is a large literature based upon responses to alarm cues derived from skin extract, because it is anticipated that prey skin is damaged when prey are attacked by a predator. However, many predators feed by suction feeding whereby prey are quickly drawn into the buccal cavity and swallowed whole with little, if any, direct contact between the teeth of the predator and the prey. Here, we test if predation by suction feeding releases chemical information in sufficient quantity to elicit an antipredator response in conspecific prey. In tests of individual zebrafish <i>Danio rerio</i>, we found that odor of crushed zebrafish produced a clear antipredator behavioral response, but water collected immediately adjacent to staged predation events between a largemouth bass <i>Micropterus salmoides</i> (122-145 mm TL) and adult zebrafish (39 mm TL) did not elicit alarm behavior, and did not differ from behavioral responses to blank water or bass odor (on a diet of earthworms). In a second experiment, zebrafish swallowed by largemouth bass, then retrieved seconds later through gastric lavage, produced zebrafish that were alive and completely intact with minimal epidermal damage. Published relationships between bass length, gape size and the geometry of suction feeding suggest that in a hypothetical population of largemouth bass feeding on adult zebrafish, or fathead minnows, the majority of predation events by piscivorous fish probably would not release detectable levels of prey alarm cue. Accounting for the role of feeding mechanics by fish predators requires a recalibration of the literature on risk assessment by small prey fishes. Chemically-mediated antipredator behaviors against suction-feeding predators may occur primarily via post-ingestion dietary cues, or disturbance cues released near the moment of attack.</p>
Suction feeding by predators limits direct release of alarm cues in fishes
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